UK Bangladeshis at higher risk of poverty: Report

British people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are around three times more likely to be in poverty compared to their white counterparts while people of Indian descent have largely closed that gap, according to new research by Oxford University.

The report by the Centre for Social Investigation (CSI) at Nuffield College at the university also found that people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin were also more likely to be living in less comfortable conditions, Indian news agency PTI reports.

"Rates of poverty are much higher among two groups – 57 per cent for people of Pakistani and 46 per cent of people of Bangladeshi background – compared with 16 per cent for the white British in 2009-11," the report entitled 'Ethnic Inequalities' found.

Bangladeshi women working department stores in UK. Photo taken from BBC

"People of Pakistani and Bangladeshi background are also more likely to have a limiting long-term illness or disability and to live in more crowded conditions," it noted.

In reference to other large ethnic minority groups in Britain, the report mentioned that Indian-origin people also remain at high risk of poverty along with other minority groups but "Indians made great strides both over time and across generations in education and occupation".

"Continued racial discrimination in the labour market against second-generation black people and people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi background cannot be ruled out as a significant part of the explanation for their continuing disadvantage," the report said.

Image of Brick Lane, the heart of the city's Bangladeshi-Sylheti community.Photo: Wikipedia.

The CSI was set up in September 2014 at Nuffield College as a new interdisciplinary research programme to address contemporary social issues of public interest and to carry out non-partisan research.

"The Nuffield CSI report highlights a terrible social indictment. Rather than witness further government initiatives or lack of them and see things get ever worse, those like me in these communities who haven't done so badly can quietly step up and take more responsibility ourselves," said well-known Bangladeshi-origin restaurateur and chair of the Nuffield CSI advisory board Iqbal Wahhab.

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